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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Moving towards less

So the news is out via (anti) social media, the realtor has visited the farm, the accountant has been accounted for, insurance agents, bankers, customers who are smart enough not to get all their info from the web have been told face to face. We are moving forward. Soon we will have an asking price for our organic dairy, beef and pork farm/business which will include a very solid farm house age 115 years, 10.88 acres, barns, LIVESTOCK, machine shed, equipment, farm store, and option to rent another 40 acres.

Soon , after lots of work gathering many figures we should have an asking price for our farm/house/business. Yesterday Keith and I walked the property sizing up what we have, what we think it is worth and what we think it is REALLY worth. An enlightening walk. Items I thought were long gone were still here under tall grass camouflage. Funny though how I am looking at this inventory a little differently.

If indeed we are going to survive on just $5000-$6000 a year we will need to hold on to items that we don't want to have to purchase down the road. So what do we sell now ? What do we include in the farm sale? What do we need to save for later use on our new homestead and what can we dispose of ?

In the meantime we are also staying up late and looking at SMALL house plans. Some folks think small is 2000 sq feet. We want 600-800 sq feet. We feel we need just one tiny bedroom, one small bathroom and a HUGE kitchen since after all that is where all the main work of cooking, canning, freezing, drying food will take place.

We are considering straw bale houses, log cabins, earth homes, cord wood houses and yeas even rubber tire houses. In the event our profit from the farm sale is not enough to buy land and build a new home we are also looking at alternative housing for the interim such as Yurts, Blurts ( which is a Yurt without an indoor bathroom) used mobile homes (never say never) and used RVs. I'm wondering how much The Elder family might charge to rent us their Shasta over the winter. And of course we will consider land with farm houses that need some TLC.
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Land, trees, shelter. What more do you need ? OK maybe
few windows would be good.

﻿﻿We are overall very excited about out new venture but continue with business as usual. Orders are still coming in for hog and beef carcasses and new milk customers show up every week. Hay still needs to be put up in the barn and lawns must be mowed. Our Farm Store, The Spotted Wattle is well stocked and open for business everyday except Sunday.

The more livestock, the more hay. The more hay, the more equipment
the more equipment, the more debt. We are ready for SIMPLE.
Like Forrest always said, "Simple is as simple does"

We continue to add new restaurants as we have meat available. Welcome to Autre Monde in Berwyn who will be putting our meat on their menu very soon. We told them the first time we met we were putting the farm up for sale and still they wanted to buy our meat. How great are they ?

So very many decisions to be made now on a daily basis. But we welcome them. For one, we decided NOT to put in a garden this year (other than a small salad garden) and instead will buy all our veggies at The Stewards of The Land Farmers Market each Saturday. We'll be gardening full time soon enough. So keep us in your prayers and on your "places to shop" list. Tell the people you know who might be interested in running a great farm with loads of work but great potential for something fantastic. We have never been able to keep up with the demand for pasture raised, healthy, antibiotic and hormone free meat. And if you have land for sale in the Pontiac, Fairbury, Chenoa, Cullom, Forrest, Chatsworth area...(5-15 acres) CALL US !

Don't forget to check out my article this week in The Renegade Farmer http://therenegadefarmer.com/ and leave a comment on their site. The editors there work so hard to put together an excellent site for the non-traditional farmer.

We want to live within 30 miles of where we are now so as to still be close to grandkids. I am hoping to have little to move compared to so many folks as we are way downsizing but the biggest issue will be going through everything on the farm. LOTS of cleanup to do :) Do you need any tire rims ?Broken buckets ? Wooden pallets ?

It's funny isn't it? We live in a small bungalow (1050 sq ft). There are days when I feel our possessions pressing in on us. We too are trying to downsize and get rid of things. It would certainly be a lot easier to clean with less stuff. I'll pass on the broken buckets lol. Maybe save those wooden pallets for a big bonfire/party before you move.

check this house out. Brian and I are going to try to see if they will sell just plans. It's just what we want when we relocate to farmstead Kentucky. http://www.pshhinc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60:most-efficient-home&catid=7

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